On Saturday, Oregon Connections Academy, the state's oldest and largest online public school, will graduate its biggest senior class yet, 150 students, up nearly 70 from the year before. It's a distinction that won't likely last.

A flurry of last-minute deal making in Salem this week secured the passage of a bill that loosens enrollment restrictions for online charter schools, a move that all but guarantees the academy's gradual growth.

ORCA, as the school is called, is operated by Connections Academy, a Baltimore-based for-profit corporation that runs online schools in 21 states. The school got permission from the tiny Scio school district to launch in 2005, and in just six years it has become the state’s fourth largest school with some 2,500 students. But, like other online schools in Oregon, it has been restricted from growing.

Under House Bill 2301, passed this week, districts would have to allow up to 3 percent of their students to enroll in virtual charter schools. That could result in more than 16,000 students attending online schools, compared with about 3,700 now. It also would mean a corresponding shift in state money -- about $6,000 per student -- from local districts to the charters. ORCA's new executive director, Todd Miller, said he expects to see steady growth, not an "opening of the floodgates."

Luke Kachelein, 17, who lives in Bandon, will be one of the 150 students to graduate on Saturday at the Salem Conference Center. He and his brother started attending the Oregon Connections Academy in 2007.

"I think it's helped me to be more prepared for college life because of the independence that I've been required to have," said Kachelein, who will attend Vassar College in the fall. "I don't have teachers every day telling me what to do."

That independence, he said, meant he could work at his own pace and pick up other hobbies, like the harpsichord.

"He's a really enthusiastic learner," says Sabra Kachelein, Luke's mom. "Even during the summer he'll take on topics and just study them.

ORCA, she says, "is much better suited for my children than the Bandon public school would have been."

Those results are not true for all ORCA students.

Last year, ORCA graduated 81 students, just 30 percent of its high school class of 2010. That's one of the lowest graduation rates in the state. More than 100 ORCA high school students quit school without a diploma, and Miller says improving the graduation rate is a high priority.

About 83 percent of ORCA students are white, compared with 66 percent of students statewide. More than half of the academy's students come from along the Interstate 5 corridor, particularly urban areas such as Portland, Salem and Medford. Many of the factors that drive down graduation rate elsewhere in the state -- socioeconomic barriers, difficulty with English as a second language -- don't necessarily impact ORCA to the same degree.

The school has one teacher for every 38 students while brick-and-mortar schools average one teacher for every 20 students. Miller says that because ORCA teachers don't have to manage classroom behavior, plan assemblies or do anything besides teach and grade students, they are able to give lots of one-on-one attention even with high student loads.

On state tests, ORCA students generally exceed state averages in reading, roughly tie them in math, and lag behind in writing.

Rep. Matt Wingard, a Wilsonville Republican and one of the co-chairs of the House education committee, pushed hard for the online charter expansion. Ultimately, the bill became a bargaining chip in a larger set of education reforms this session in what Rep. Sara Gelser, a Corvallis Democrat and Wingard's education co-chair, called a "profoundly perverted process."

The bill, as finally configured, never got a public hearing. It has been given final approval and is headed to the governor, who has said he would sign it.

"I think Oregonians should expect public hearings," Gelser said. "They should know who is supporting what and why."

Wingard drew personal heat during the negotiations. He's been on contract as a public relations consultant for ORCA since 2005. He's declared his conflict of interest several times on the House floor and maintains that his compensation will not change as a result of the bill's passage or increased enrollment rates.

"What I want is for there to be lots of different types of options out there," Wingard said. "The homogenization (of education) is clearly not working for a minority of our kids... We need lots of different alternatives out there, innovative school models."

Chuck Bennett, a lobbyist for the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators, doesn't disagree with Wingard in principle. Online education should be a state priority, he says. He just doesn't believe that focusing on a few statewide schools like ORCA is the way to do it.

"You have students in far eastern Oregon enrolled in Scio," Bennet said. "We believe the better way to do it was to have online education more readily available at local school districts."

There's also the issue of state finances. Oregon pays about $6,000 to educate each ORCA student, the same as it would in a traditional school. If enrollment in online schools skyrockets, it could put strain on local districts and the school system in general that would not be getting that per-student money, Bennett said.

"It represents quite a bit of money moving around," he said. "That always plays a part, particularly in a period where we're a billion short of the anticipated cost of education."

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